Greensboro man’s impassioned plea on gun rights goes viral

Mark Robinson of Greensboro speaks at a Greensboro City Council meeting on April 3, 2018. | City of Greensboro YouTube

GREENSBORO — A man’s speech on gun rights before a Greensboro City Council meeting last week has gone viral with a video of it getting more than 4 million views. Greensboro resident Mark Robinson spoke during the public comment period of a meeting regarding a gun and knife show planned for the Greensboro Coliseum Complex in August. One of the city council members suggested that the show be canceled in light of the February high school shooting in Parkland, Fla.

“What I want to know is when are all of you going to start standing up for the majority?” Robinson asked. “Here’s who the majority is. I’m the majority. I’m a law-abiding citizen who never shot anybody. Never committed a serious crime and never committed a felony. I’ve never done anything like that.”

A native of Greensboro, Robinson is reportedly a student at UNC Greensboro studying to become a history teacher. He works at a furniture manufacturing plant, and said he attended the meeting with no intention of going to the microphone. After sitting in the audience and listening to the city council discuss the upcoming gun show, he felt that he had to speak up.

“It seems like every time we have one of these shootings, nobody wants to put the blame where it goes, which is at the shooter’s feet. You want to put it at my feet,” Robinson told the council.

Since then, Robinson has become an “everyman” for gun rights, reaching millions of people who may not have felt heard. He was interviewed on the “Fox & Friends” morning program and other national and local news outlets.

The city council’s attorney said that the body did not have the authority to cancel the show but could allocate its proceeds. At the end of the meeting, the Greensboro City Council voted to put all proceeds from the show toward the city’s Gun Stoppers program, up to $40,000, which gives money for information leading to an arrest or confiscation of illegally owned guns in Guilford County.

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